It is known that most vivotoxins are produced and absorbed within the intestines, migrate into the blood, and provide a cause of organ disorders. Normally, the vivotoxins are detoxified in the liver, and excreted by the kidney. However, patients suffering from reduced renal function or liver function cannot excrete the vivotoxins due to these organ dysfunctions, and accumulate the vivotoxins within the body, which occasionally leads to the presentation of severe symptoms such as uremia and disturbance of consciousness. Due to the increase in lifestyle diseases including diabetes mellitus, the number of patients suffering from renal dysfunction or hepatic dysfunction increases every year, and therefore the development of medical devices substituting organ functions or therapeutic agents for compensating these organ dysfunctions and removing the vivotoxins from the body, and the development of therapeutic agents or food products for suppressing the absorption of the vivotoxins from the intestines to the blood are important challenges.
Currently, hemodialysis is the most prevailing method for removing the vivotoxins; basically, this methodology is based on size fractionation, and therefore, the removal of disease-causing molecules such as vivotoxins adsorbed to albumin and β2 microglobulin by means of the hemodialysis has been difficult.
In addition, in recent years, much attention has been paid to dialysis therapy in which dialysates of the hemodialysis are purified, regenerated and recycled, and wearable dialysis. For these therapies to gain widespread use, a technology is required for efficiently removing the vivotoxins that have migrated from the blood to the dialysates during the hemodialysis.
On the other hand, an activated carbon (adsorptive carbon) for oral administration is listed in the Japanese Pharmacopoeia as a medicinal carbon and the like, and has been utilized at the time of drug poisoning and food poisoning for the purpose of causing toxic substances to be adsorbed thereon in the gastrointestinal organs and to be excreted as stools. In addition to the detoxification of the drug poisoning cases as described above, administration of the activated carbon to patients suffering from reduced renal function enables a reduction in the burden placed on the kidney, a delay in the timing of the introduction of hemodialysis, and a reduction in the frequency of the dialysis. Orally-administrable activated carbon formulations will offer numerous benefits, since the hemodialysis places considerable mental, physical, and economic burden on patients.
As the activated carbon formulations for oral administration, substances which are obtained by using pitch such as petroleum pitch, and phenolic resins as a carbonaceous raw material, and calcinating the carbonaceous raw material with non-flammable gases are known (see, Patent Documents 1 to 7 and the like). These activated carbon formulations have several advantages, including high stability and high safety to living organisms and reduced side effects such as constipation, and are commercially available as fine granules and capsules, for example, under the trade name “Kremezin” (registered).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Examined Patent Application, Publication No. 62-11611
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2002-253649
Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2002-308785
Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2004-244414
Patent Document 5: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2004-123673
Patent Document 6: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2006-36734
Patent Document 7: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2008-303193
Non-Patent Document 1: Takeuchi M. et al., Mol. Med 5: 393-405 (1999)